2nd day of 2nd grade

Even though Jared and Kamryn were up extra early on the first day of school I waited too long to leave for school and we barely drove up when their bell was ringing.  So we hurried and got them in line just as their teacher was taking the class inside.  So no time for pictures or even goodbyes.

This morning I made to leave plenty early so we could get some 2nd grade pictures at the school

Jared and Kamryn
before their 2nd day of 2nd grade

Kamryn loves to do the monkey bars!

Jared and Kamryn by the 2nd grade door

Being very typical silly 2nd graders :)

Back to school

I really can't believe that its already the end of summer and time to go back to school.  Jared and Kamryn were very excited to start 2nd grade and got up 30 minutes before their alarm went off on the first day of school.  They were ready to go 45 min before we needed to leave.  That was good so we could take the 1st day of school pictures with Taylor before he headed off to 9th grade.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Jared's report at the end of the first day was

"that was fun"

and Kamryn said

"I love my teacher"

Taylor, cool 9th grader.

His report of the first day was a good one for the most part 

and pretty detailed.

His favorite classes so far are art, math and seminary.

Hoping this will be a great year for all of them.

Its kind of strange to not have anyone at the high school

for the first time in 4 years.

Its nice to only deal with the middle school

and elementary for one year.

1st College Child

Brooke is starting her first day as a college student at the University of Utah tomorrow.  She is paying her own room and board so she can live on campus her freshman year.  We are excited for this experience for her.  Moving day was last week.  She got everything packed up and ready to go on her own.

Brooke in front of the Emma Eccles Fine Arts House
This is where she'll be living at the U.

Jared and Kamryn came along to help Brooke take all of her things up to her room.  She has her own room (how spoiled is that) on the 2nd floor.  Its a neat old house and she has 2 windows in her room that look out to great views on the east side of campus.

 Brooke with her great helpers, who are really going to miss her, and I think she'll miss them too.

 This was a cartoon I saw on facebook the other day and shared on my wall.  Its not exactly true with Brooke, but I certainly will miss her a lot.  But I am so proud of all that she has accomplished to be where she is at today.

Brooke's new room

Even though Brooke is living on campus at the University of Utah for her freshman year, she still needs a room at home.  Since she won't be around much I felt like we should have her move downstairs and then the bedrooms upstairs will be for Taylor, Jared and Kamryn.  So she agreed to move downstairs to Justin's old room.  I told her we could paint it and fix it up for her.  She really liked that idea and got busy cleaning out her old room.  The pictures below are of her "new" room before we painted and decorated:

BEFORE

Brooke was a big help in redoing her new room

AFTER

new bedding

her own artwork up on the "strawberry daiquiri" wall

sleeping in her new room

I love the new curtains -
one panel from Walmart that I cut in half and then
put in new casings

Hopefully since she has a fun new room she'll come home sometimes to see us.

Fine French Friends

We have been very lucky this summer to get to meet Martin and his family.  His parents came to pick up Martin and his brother, Victor, after the boys had spent 3 weeks here with their host families.  We were able to get together with Martin and his family several times.  We really enjoyed getting to know them better and visiting with them about France and their lives their.  We also enjoyed hearing about all the places they've traveled.

our 2 families together after dinner
at the house they are staying at in Holladay

good times

We will miss Martin and his family very much but are looking forward to going to visit them in Paris in May 2014.

1st Driving Lesson

Taylor is almost 15 - in a month and that means he gets to get his learner's permit.  Yikes!  I can't believe its time to start teaching another teenager to drive.  I always start by teaching them to around the loop up at Brighton.  Its the perfect place for the first lesson - one way road with a 25 mph speed limit and very little traffic.  I told Taylor before we started that if I freak out not to take it personally - its just my nature when I feel like I'm going to die :)
Taylor did a great job and I was very impressed with how well he did.  I only freaked out once when we were on a narrow side road and he was going  a little too fast down a hill.  Now we only have 39 more hours to practice driving.